Another MN state boys basketball miracle

For any Wisconsin SJers...

I think it was 1999, I was watching the Adams-Friendship Green Devils play somebody in a title game. They were down one and held the ball for the last 3:45 or so... running a weave. They got a backdoor with :02 to win by a point. No timeouts. No coach scripting a play. They just ran it. I was in awe.

 

See, running a weave for 3:45, and doing one of those ball-on-the-hip standstill stalls for 3:45 against a defense which won't come out, are two very different things altogether.

For one thing, there are VERY few HS teams which could run a weave -- even playing 5-on-0 in warmups -- for 3:45 without turning the ball over.

Plus, while we're at it, it would tire the hell out of your players, which it seems to me kinda defeats the whole idea. But I guess if you make that layup at the end, it's all golden.

But if you walk with :08 left, you're fucked.

 

What I would argue...

While the defenders stood around late in a game, got comfortable and also got cold, the players on the team with the ball were still sweating, moving and, in those final seconds, already in rhythm.

 

Maybe, but unless the defensive team was really stupid and really did just stand there like mannequins, they were shuffling along with the offense at about half-speed, enough to stay loose but not enough to really get burned out.

If they're playing 'contain' defense, they're sliding under all the picks, so they shouldn't be taking much of a physical pummeling.

For an offense to run a weave against a team applying more than absolute matador defense is a hell of a lot of hard work -- in effect, it's like running half-court suicides the whole time.

You gotta drive hard, give it up, cut back and reverse, swing around the top and get the return pass from the third player.

I really think almost all of these delay strategies only work if the opponents cooperate and play right into your hands.

 

This. Most high school teams I have seen could not hang on to the ball without turning it over against defensive pressure. Too many times one of the offensive team's players ends up on the sideline or in the corner...trapped with a couple of guys on him. They either turn the ball over or the coach has to call a timeout.

 

Dude ... I don't think anyone believes a 60-foot Hail Mary makes a kid more of a college prospect.

 

Wait a minute... they have a potential McDonald's All-America, and they are holding the ball for five minutes of overtime?

Minnesota high school basketball sucks.

 

I had no idea there were some outbacks of basketball without a shot clock.

 

Minnesota actually had the most points per game of any state in boy basketball this season, for what it's worth.

That does come with an asterisk since they play two 18-minute halves instead of the normal 8-minute quarters. Not sure how common that is across the rest of the country. But it's not a bunch of Norman Dale-run teams boring everyone to death.

Of course the real Hoosiers, Milan, actually had its game play out in a similar way. Bobby Plump held the ball for like four minutes, then for another minute before his winning shot. Thankfully we didn't have to watch Jimmy Chitwood do that.

People say shot clock would cost too much and you'd have to find qualified people to run it. I suppose, but if North Dakota and South Dakota have managed to afford it and find people who know when to reset the damn thing, I'd think Minnesota could.

 

Its worth little to nothing. I can only assume the quality of competition is terrible, so they aren't afraid to run. Then, they get to State competition, and the coach's gonads shrink to pea-size.

Pathetic.

 

Oh, I'm sure most states don't. The schools probably scream about the cost of acquiring and running the clock. And high school coaches are notorious for loving to play puppetmaster with the game, anyway.

 

I have mixed feelings about the shot clock at the high school level, but I find it equally ridiculous that some coaches will have their players just stand there with the ball for four minutes at a time... and I read one example in which that happened in the second quarter.

Running an offense designed to burn the clock can certainly be good strategy and it can be exciting to watch if the other team plays good defense, because there's anticipation that they might force a turnover, or the other team might find a teammate wide open and get an easy shot.

The best thing for opposing coaches to do is to send their best defender up to the kid holding the ball, or just say "heck with it" and have two kids come up for a trap, thus forcing the one holding the ball to make a decision. Just because one coach instructs a kid to hold the ball and stand there, doesn't mean the other coach is obligated to keep his players away from him.